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Does Faster Broadband Matter?
tsa writes "There is an interesting piece on Ars Technica discussing the implications of faster broadband services for the users, and for the internet as a whole. From the article: 'Most online activities, like standard websurfing, are not significantly sped up by high-bandwidth connections, and the few that are, such as downloading, are not typically time-sensitive anyway. Many service providers are starting to prioritize their own content at the expense of those from rivals. Many countries have started or are considering blocking Voice-over-IP (VOIP) traffic in order to protect the phone companies from competition.'" How does faster broadband actually impact your Net usage?
That's very true. You can think of it like magazines. You can get a subscription to one, and they'll send it to your house, or you can pick them up at random from stores, similar to downloading movies or television shows. But no magazine can ever be produced by only the subscribers' slim pickings. The real revenue comes from the ads inside it.
This is also why you can get subscriptions for a fraction of the cover price, because then the publishing company has statistics of you to give to the advertisers.
None of this will change for television and movie downloading. There will still be commercials, whether in the show or "around" it, but the big bucks will come from that and not what you pay to download it.